Life of Jonathan Wild the Great

Henry Fielding

Description

One of the masters of literary satire and humor writing, Henry Fielding takes on true crime in this novel, offering readers a wild ride as tumultuous and twisted as the book's original tongue-twister of a title: The History of the Life of the Late Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great. This exaggerated but mostly true account details the life of criminal mastermind Jonathan Wild, a top English policemen who also ran a notorious nationwide network of thieves in the early eighteenth century.

Sujets

• True crime

Informations

• Publié par: The Floating Press
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781775450986
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE LIFE OF JONATHAN WILD THE GREAT
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HENRY FIELDING
 
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The Life of Jonathan Wild the Great First published in 1743 ISBN 978-1-775450-98-6 © 2011 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
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Introduction BOOK I Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen BOOK II Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen BOOK III Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen BOOK IV Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Endnotes
Introduction
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Jonathan Wild, born about 1682 and executed at Tyburn in 1725, wasone of the most notorious criminals of his age. His resemblance tothe hero in Fielding's satire of the same name is general ratherthan particular. The real Jonathan (whose legitimate business wasthat of a buckle-maker) like Fielding's, won his fame, not as arobber himself, but as an informer, and a receiver of stolengoods. His method was to restore these to the owners on receipt ofa commission, which was generally pretty large, pretending that hehad paid the whole of it to the thieves, whom for disinterestedmotives he had traced. He was a great organiser, and he controlledvarious bands of robbers whose lives he did not hesitate tosacrifice, when his own was in danger. Naturally he was so hatedby many of his underlings that it is a wonder he was able tomaintain his authority over them as many years as he did. Hisrascality had been notorious a long time before his crimes couldactually be proved. He was executed at last according to thestatute which made receivers of stolen goods equally guilty withthe stealers.
Beyond this general resemblance, the adventures of the realJonathan, so far as we know them, are not much like those of thefictitious. True, the real Jonathan's married life was unhappy,though his quarrel with his wife did not follow so hard upon hiswedding as the quarrel of Fielding's hero and the chaste Laetitia.Not until a year from his marriage did the real Jonathan separatefrom his spouse, after which time he lived, like Fielding's, notalways mindful of his vows of faithfulness. Like Fielding's, too,he was called upon to suppress rebellions in his gangs, and oncehe came very near being killed in a court of justice by one Blake,alias Blueskin. Apart from these misadventures, the experiences ofFielding's Wild seem to be purely imaginary. "My narrative israther of such actions which he might have performed," the authorhimself says, [1] "or would, or should have performed, than what he reallydid. ... The Life and Actions of the Late Jonathan Wild, got outwith characteristic commercial energy by Defoe, soon after thecriminal's execution, is very different from Fielding's satiricalnarrative, and probably a good deal nearer the truth."
Jonathan Wild was published as the third volume of theMiscellanies "by Henry Fielding, Esq." which came out in thespring of 1743. From the reference to Lady Booby's steward, PeterPounce, in Book II., it seems to have been, as Mr. Austin Dobsonhas observed, and as the date of publication would imply, composedin part at least subsequently to Joseph Andrews, which appearedearly in 1742. But the same critic goes on to say that whenevercompleted, Jonathan Wild was probably "planned and begun beforeJoseph Andrews was published, as it is in the highest degreeimprobable that Fielding, always carefully watching the publictaste, would have followed up that fortunate adventure in a newdirection by a work so entirely different from it as JonathanWild." [2] Mr. Dobson'ssurmise is undoubtedly correct. The "strange, surprisingadventures" of Mrs. Heartfree belong to a different school offiction from that with which we commonly associate Fielding. Theyare such as we should expect one of Defoe's characters to gothrough, rather than a woman whose creator had been gratified onlya year before at the favourable reception accorded to Fanny andLady Booby and Mrs. Slipslop.
That Jonathan Wild is for the most part a magnificent example ofsustained irony, one of the best in our literature, critics havegenerally agreed. The comparison steadfastly insisted upon betweenJonathan Wild's greatness and the greatness which the world looksup to, but which without being called criminal is yet devoid ofhumanity, is admirable. Admirable, too, is the ironical humour, inwhich Fielding so excelled, and which in Jonathan Wild he seldomdrops. It would take too long to mention all the particularly goodironical passages, but among them are the conversation betweenWild and Count La Ruse, and the description of Miss Tishy Snap inthe first book; the adventures of Wild in the boat at the end ofthe second book; and, in the last, the dialogue between theordinary of Newgate and the hero, the death of Wild, and thechapter which sets forth his character and his maxims forattaining greatness. And yet as a satire Jonathan Wild is notperfect. Fielding himself hits upon its one fault, when, in thelast book, after the long narrative of Mrs. Heartfree's adventuresby sea and by land, he says, "we have already perhaps detained ourreader too long ... from the consideration of our hero." He hasdetained us far too long. A story containing so much irony asJonathan Wild should be an undeviating satire like A Tale of aTub. The introduction of characters like the Heartfrees, who aremeant to enlist a reader's sympathy, spoils the unity. True, theway they appear at first is all very well. Heartfree is "a sillyfellow," possessed of several great weaknesses of mind, being"good-natured, friendly, and generous to a great excess," anddevoted to the "silly woman," his wife. But later Fielding becomesso much interested in the pair that he drops his ironical tone.Unfortunately, however, in depicting them, he has not met with hisusual success in depicting amiable characters. The exemplarycouple, together with their children and Friendly, are much lessreal than the villain and his fellows. And so the importance ofthe Heartfrees in Jonathan Wild seems to me a double blemish. Asatire is not truth, and yet in Mr. and Mrs. Heartfree Fieldinghas tried—though not with success—to give us virtuous characterswho are truly human. The consequence is that Jonathan Wild justfails of being a consistently brilliant satire.
As to its place among Fielding's works, critics have differedconsiderably. The opinion of Scott found little in Jonathan Wildto praise, but then it is evident from what he says, that Scottmissed the point of the satire. [3] Some other critics have been neither more friendly than SirWalter, nor more discriminating, in speaking of Jonathan Wild andSmollett's Count Fathom in the same breath, as if they weresimilar either in purpose or in merit. Fathom is a romanticpicaresque novel, with a possibly edifying, but most unnaturalreformation of the villainous hero at the last; Jonathan Wild is apretty consistent picaresque satire, in which the hero ends whereFathom by all rights should have ended,—on the gallows. Fathom isthe weakest of all its author's novels; Jonathan Wild is notproperly one of Fielding's novels at all, but a work only a littlebelow them. For below them I cannot help thinking it, in spite ofthe opinion of a critic of taste and judgment so excellent asProfessor Saintsbury's. When this gentleman, in his introductionto Jonathan Wild, in a recent English edition of Fielding's works,says that: "Fielding has written no greater book," he seems to meto give excessive praise to a work of such great merit that onlyits deserved praise is ample.
A great satire, I should say, is never the equal of a great novel.In the introductions which I have already written, in trying toshow what a great novel is, I have said that an essential part ofsuch a book is the reality of its scenes and characters. Nowscenes and characters will not seem real, unless there is in themthe right blend of pleasure and pain, of good and bad; for life isnot all either one thing or the other, nor has it ever been so.Such reality is not found in a satire, for a satire, asdistinguished from a novel, both conceals and exaggerates: itgives half-truths instead of whole truths; it shows not all oflife but only a part; and even this it cannot show quite truly,for its avowed object is to magnify some vice or foible. In doingso, a satire finds no means so effective as irony, which makes itsappeal wholly to the intellect. A good novel, on the contrary,touches the head and the heart both; along with passages whichgive keen intellectual enjoyment, it offers passages which moveits reader's tears. Still, a good novelist without appreciation ofirony cannot be imagined, for without the sense of humour whichmakes irony appreciated, it is impossible to see the objects ofthis world in their right proportions. Irony, then, which is themain part of a satire, is essential to a good novel, though notnecessarily more than a small part of it. In